Do you believe in God? Is it because your brain or genes tells you to? Is it natural to do so? Did it serve an important part in our evolution as a species? Do we need to evolve past it? Is religious belief a by-product of the structures of our brain? Would it bother you to find out that it naturally evolved from the structures of the mind ?
Nancey Murphy argues that Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) has overtaken Freud, Feuerbach, Neitzsche, and Marx as the most articulate and viable opponent of a realist affirmation of God’s existence. David Sloan Wilson states the evolutionary account forcefully and social factors.”
Pascal Boyer has said, ‘all versions of religion are based on very similar tacit assumption, and that all it takes to imagine supernatural agents are normal human minds processing information in the most natural ways.’ If you don’t get the feel there check out Paul Bloom’s article ‘Is God an Accident?’ where he says, ‘Religious teachings certainly shape many of the specific beliefs we hold; nobody is born with the idea that the birthplace of humanity was the Garden of Eden, or that the soul enters the body at the moment of conception, or that martyrs will be rewarded with sexual access to scores of virgins. These ideas are learned. But the universal themes of religion are not learned. They emerge as accidental by-products of our mental systems. They are part of human nature.”
I have been spending time asking these questions, reading some pages, listening to lectures, and just thinking (check the links). I also read ‘believing primate’ and in the book you get a variety of scientific, philosophical, and theological engagements with these issues. Below is a conversation between Paul Bloom and Michael Murray (one of the editors) where the basic distinctions of the book appear. The video is well worth watching if you are interested in CSR and religion. If it’s interesting the book is well worth reading. The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion
Here is Nancey Murphey & Jeffrey Schloss (both in the book) in conversation. It takes 12 minutes for them to get into it but it is enjoyable afterward. They composed an article together title, ‘Biology and Religion’ which you can find here. You can find the introduction to the book here.
I really had nothing to do with “knowing God.” At the age of either 4 or 5, I was awaken by a voice calling my name. I had my own bedroom. I sat straight up in bed and saw a figure standing at the foot of my bed. It looked like my mother as the figure was dressed in a brown with yellow dots two piece dress that my mother wore. There was a head but no face. No other words were spoken. I sat there wide awake simply staring but not speaking. Do not remember going back to sleep. The next morning I asked my mother why she was in my room during the night. Her answer was, “I was not in your room.” I argued with her and told her the dress she had on. She still said it was not her but maybe I had a dream. Believe you me it was not a dream. I saw what I saw and I continue to this day seeing that figure in my mind. It puzzled me for many years. What happened after that was a very real sense of someone or some thing being with me at all times, never leaving my side. We attended church as a family but do not remember when they began taking me. My father would read to me out of a childs bible story book every night before going to bed. I was always wondering what was happening to me but had no clue. My parents never talked about God in our home. We asked a blessing before meals, said night time prayers, etc. but never, even as an adult, did we talk about God. In Sunday school I was more a listener than a person who asked questions so coming to a conclusion about my “vision” took me many years. All those years I continued to have this presence with me, it never failed. I felt so comfortable with the presence and began talking with it, of course I never heard the presense speak but I began having thoughts in my head. I began, as a child, to spend long hours outside looking up at the clouds and talking or listening for God. Now I use “centering prayer” for listening to God and every moment I carry on a conversation with God in my mind or out loud. As a teen, as I listened to sermons, I learned about The Holy Spirit. At that time I knew who have been my visitor at the foot of my bed and who had been with me all my life. So, I had no say so in this matter. God payed me a visit and from there I began a life long relationship with God my creator, partner, teacher, comforter, guide, etc. YES, YES, YES I believe in God and cannot deny God as God has proven to me over and over that God exists and is a relational God, my friend as well as my judge.